Don W. Fawcett

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Don W. Fawcett

Don Wayne Fawcett (born March 14, 1917 in Springdale , Iowa , † May 7, 2009 in Missoula , Montana ) was an American anatomist and cell biologist.

Life

Fawcett was born the son of a farmer. Due to an illness, the father had to give up the farm and the family moved to Boston . There Don Fawcett attended the Boston Latin School and went to Harvard College in 1934 , where he became interested in biology. In 1938 he earned his bachelor's degree and moved to Harvard Medical School , where he was a student of George Wislocki .

In 1941, Fawcett married his childhood sweetheart from Iowa, Dorothy Secrest , and graduated a year later. He then began training as a surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital . Triggered by a major fire at Coconut Grove Nightclub in which 440 people died and Fawcett fought for 30 hours for every life, he reconsidered his career decision and recognized his greater inclination for research and teaching and moved to the Department of Anatomy at Harvard Medical School.

The beginning of his scientific career coincided with the development of the electron microscope . Fawcett moved to Keith Porter , one of the pioneers of this technique, at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research (now Rockefeller University ), where he first studied cinematic cilia and discovered the 9 + 2 pattern of microtubules .

However, Fawcett moved back to Harvard Medical School and continued to study electron microscopy. In 1955 Fawcett was appointed professor of anatomy and cell biology at Cornell Medical School in New York City , where he established an electron microscope laboratory. In 1959 he turned down a call to the University of Oxford and instead accepted the Hersey Professorship in Anatomy at Harvard. In 1976 he became Senior Associate Dean for Preclinical Science . In 1985 he retired, but took a position as Senior Scientist at the International Research Laboratory for Animal Diseases in Nairobi ( Kenya ), where he mainly dealt with parasitoses ( theileriosis and trypanosomiasis ). After working in Kenya for five years, he returned to the United States.

Act

Fawcett made several fundamental discoveries in ultrastructure and modernized training in microscopic anatomy. 29 of his students and postdocs became professors and another 30 became directors of anatomical or cell biology institutes.

He was a co-founder of the American Society for Cell Biology and was elected its first president in 1961. From 1965 to 1966, Fawcett was president of the American Association of Anatomists . In 1955 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences , in 1972 he became a member of the National Academy of Sciences .

Fawcett has received a number of scientific awards and honorary degrees. In 1988 the Fawcett Lecture in Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School was established in his honor .

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personal data
SURNAME Fawcett, Don W.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Fawcett, Don Wayne (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American anatomist and cell biologist
DATE OF BIRTH March 14, 1917
PLACE OF BIRTH Springdale , Iowa
DATE OF DEATH May 7, 2009
Place of death Missoula , Montana